The Famine Inquiry Commission Final Report-1945

Abstract

This is the second report of the Famine Inquiry Commission appointed under Ordinance No. X X V I I I of 1-944. We shall begin by repeating our terms of reference. To investigate and report to the Central Government upon the causes of the food shortage and subsequent epidemics in India, and in particular in Bengal, in the year 1943, and to make recommendations as to the prevention of- their recurpehce, with special reference to— (а) the possibility of improving the diet of the people and the quality and yield of food crops, and (б) the possibility of improving the system of administration in respect of the supply and distribution of food, the provision of emergent medical relief and the emergent arrangements for the control of epidemics in famine conditions in those areas apd in those aspects in which the present system may be found to have been unsatisfactory. Our first report, entitled “ Report on Bengal ” was published in May 1945. This was concerned mainly with the history and causes of the great famine of 1943, but we dealt also with problems of'food supply and distribution in Bengal in the immediate future, and with medical relief and the control of epidemics in famine. In analysing the causes of the famine we had to give considerable attention to the all-India food situation and food policy during the critical war years, and in the chapter on food administration in Bengal in the immediate future we referred freely to administrative methods followed in other provinces, but Bengal itself was throughout the main theme of the report.